


Five times Rodney nearly kissed John

by strangepromises (juliet)



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: 5 Things, First Time, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-11-21
Updated: 2008-11-21
Packaged: 2017-10-03 01:20:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juliet/pseuds/strangepromises
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You wouldn't have thought, Rodney noted to himself, that watching a man turn into a giant bug would be the sort of thing that inclined you to want to kiss him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five times Rodney nearly kissed John

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted in mcsmooch. Early season as I'd only just started watching SGA at the time.

When Sheppard sat down in the chair for the first time, back in Antartica, and everything lit up, Rodney had to restrain himself from hauling him bodily out of the chair and flinging his arms around him. The strongest expression they'd seen of the gene, and with none of Carson's qualms. They really, really needed this man. He pushed aside the impulse, and the slight envy that he, Rodney McKay, didn't have the gene as well, in favour of explaining in expansive detail to this Major Sheppard just why he had to come to Atlantis with them.

 

Rodney had rarely felt so relieved as when he'd heard Sheppard's voice over the comm from the Daedalus. He really had thought that that was it, that Sheppard's insane heroic death-wish had succeeded. And it might not even save them, and he couldn't quite work out whether that made it worse or better, because it was all just bad, as bad as it could possibly be. When Sheppard was beamed back down, later, Rodney couldn't help but give him an awkward hug. But he dismissed the impulse to kiss him as just an artefact of the whole ongoing near-death-situation thing, and then the chaos all started up again anyway and he forgot about it.

 

You wouldn't have thought, Rodney noted to himself, that watching a man turn into a giant bug would be the sort of thing that inclined you to want to kiss him. But Carson's retrovirus was taking effect, and Sheppard was becoming human again, exhausted and wary and shell-shocked. Seeing Sheppard's defenses so high, bruised by what had happened to him, Rodney just wanted to kiss it all better; to reassure Sheppard that he really was back to normal, that someone was there for him. He was pretty sure it wouldn't go down well, so he contented himself with going to the infirmary and bitching about Zelenka and the botanists and everything else he could think of until Sheppard got his amused-pissed-off-at-Rodney look back.

 

That bastard, Rodney thought, gripping the edge of the console so hard his knuckles turned white, as Sheppard, Teyla, and Ronon walked back through the gate after the two Hive ships had blown each other into pieces. Rodney railed to himself about the inconsiderateness of letting them all think that the three of them were dead, as he fought to keep himself from running down and throwing himself on Sheppard in front of everyone.

 

It was late at night, in the lab. Nothing had blown up recently, no death or near-death experiences, unless you counted SGA-5's encounter with some kind of very large, green, cat with poisonous claws, and really that was just standard issue Pegasus Galaxy. Carson was sure that the patches of skin would grow back soon enough, anyway. Rodney was taking the opportunity to catch up on some of the less pressing research. He looked up as a shadow crossed the door, to see Sheppard leaning there, in his usual boneless fashion.

"Colonel? What can I do for you?"

Sheppard shrugged. "Can't sleep. Nothing's gone wrong recently. Making me nervous. I wondered if you wanted to watch a DVD?"

Rodney looked at his laptop, tilted his head a bit, then shrugged yes. It could wait.

They ended up in Sheppard's room, settled down against the wall with the laptop between them to watch something with explosions in. Halfway through, Rodney turned to Sheppard, starting on some criticism of the mindless inanity they were watching. Sheppard turned to him at the same time, and something, maybe something in Sheppard's eyes or just the calmness of being this close together when neither of them were in mortal danger... Rodney wanted, he really wanted, to lean just that little further towards Sheppard and kiss him. Just once. But it would be disastrous, he knew it would be, catastrophic, and he'd lose his best friend. Not worth it. Really, really not worth it.

But he couldn't quite look away, and he couldn't quite remember what he'd been going to say (which was ridiculous, because, hello, genius). And while he was scrabbling mentally for a foothold, suddenly Sheppard's eyes widened, and he was leaning towards Rodney, to tentatively brush his lips against Rodney's, dry and warm and unmistakeably Sheppard.

Rodney froze for just a moment, paralysed by the sheer improbability of it. Sheppard started to move away, stiffening, backing off, about to make a joke of it. Oh god, no, Rodney thought frantically, he was even going to screw it up this way around. He unfroze just in time before Sheppard shut himself down, just in time to get his hand up and behind Sheppard's neck, pull him back for another kiss. Yes, yes, me too, oh god, me too. He felt Sheppard relax and kiss him back, harder now, making a tiny noise of need and want in the back of his throat, and even if Rodney still couldn't quite believe that this was really happening, that Sheppard wanted him, it wasn't going to stop him from curling his fingers into the back of that ridiculous hair and pulling Sheppard closer still.

And even if another near-death-experience was just around the corner -- and this was Pegasus, Rodney's subconscious snorted, of course it was -- maybe this, this could make it all better.


End file.
